investigation.  I do not mean that Douville was the first to observe this phenomenon, which forced itself upon the notice of physiologists in ancient times.  Foster ("Cook’s Third Voyage”) remarks that, wherever men and animals have many females, the feminine births preponderate over the masculine; a fact there explained by the “organic molecule” of Buffon.  Pigafetta, the circumnavigator, gives the King of Tidor eighteen daughters to eight sons.

The French traveller does not pretend to be a mineralogist, but he does his best to lay open the metallic riches of the country; he gives careful observations of temperature, in water as well as air, he divines the different proportions of oxygen in the atmosphere, and he even applies himself to investigating the comparative heat of the negro’s blood, an inquiry still far from being exhausted.  The most remarkable part is certainly the medical, and here the author was simply in advance of his age.  Instead of the lancet, the drastic cathartics, and the calomel with which our naval surgeons slew their patients, he employed emetics and tonics to an extent that would have charmed my late friend, Dr. Dickson, the chromothermalist, and he preceded Dr. Hutchinson in the use of quinine wine.  Indeed, the peculiar aptitude for medicine shown in these pages led to the traveller’s adopting the destructive art of healing as a profession, and caused his unhappy end.  The curious mixture of utter imposture and of genius for observation which a traveller can detect in Douville renders him worthy of a monograph.

Chapter VI.

Up the Congo River.—­the Slave Depot, Porto Da Lenha.—­arrival at
                             Boma.

M. Parrot was as good as his word.  By August 31st, “L’Esperance,” a fine schooner-rigged palhabote (launch) of thirty-five tons, heavily sparred and carrying lots of “muslin,” was ready to receive my outfit.  The party consisted of the commander, Mr. Bigley, and five chosen “Griffons,” including William Deane, boatswain’s mate, as good a man as his namesake in Blake’s day, and the estimable Friend, captain’s cook and Figaro in general.  M. Pissot, an Arlesien, clerk to the factory, went up on business with a crew of eight useless Cabindas under Frank, their pagan “patron,” who could only run us aground.  Finally, there was a guard of half-a-dozen “Laptots,” equally good sailors and soldiers.  The French squadron in West Africa has the advantage over ours of employing these men,

086—–­ who are clean, intelligent, and brave; whilst we are reduced to the unprogressive Kru-man, who is, moreover, a model coward, a poltroon on principle.